my flight was actually pretty nice. being in missionary clothes the whole time wasn't to comfortable but at least i wasn't cold. san Fransisco airport was really nice and clean and looked really trippy on the inside at some parts. but then hong Kong airport was even more clean and neat and i really liked it in there. it was nice weather outside as well. the group kinda got split up and i didn't see a few people after that, but it's alright. i got to say goodbye at the MTC anyways. i don't have my journal though, elder tomasi still has it. i'm trying to get it back, it might take a while though. it has all the e-mails of everyone at the MTC in there.
there are 4 other missionaries in my apartment, and then 4 missionaries next door. my companions are the zone leaders and the elders with us and next door are all office elders and assistants to the president. i'm in Bacolod 3rd ward which is the area where the mission office is. so i just walk for five minutes to the office everyday. normally, the office elders have the best misionaries, so i'm surrounded by a lot of the best missionaries in the mission. the office is where president Tobias goes every other day, so i might see him fairly often.
my first week her has been intense. we've taught about 30 lessons or so, which is about 5 over the norm. we've had a bunch of golden investigators who are really progressing. they'll probably be baptized in the next 4 weeks. the philippines is way different from back home. for one, there is no AC anywhere! except the church, supermarket(mall) and KFC and McDonalds. that's about the worst thing about being here. i don't get very many chances to eat, there is never any time. we use jeepneys to get around most everywhere. the area that i am working in is very poor. like where houses are literally just shacks built on the side of the road out of scrap metal and scrap wood. my apartment though is ok, no where near glamorous but at least it isn't a shack. no ac though, but we got running water and electricity. a lot of bug bites at night though. it's been raining a lot recently, even though it's the hot season (which sucks) but the rain helps take away the heat.
the language is very new and very hard to understand. it is NOT tagolog, it is ilongo. which they do not teach in the MTC. they are similar, but i have to relearn all the vocab and verbs and i need to understand how to use the new conjugations.
i ate a lot of really "different" food lately. so far, i've eaten a wide assortment or cleverly cooked dead animals and strange fruits. i'll get into the food latery, once i can take pictures. (i forgot for the past few times) today, i pulled out a rib rack from a pig that was killed and cooked just this morning. it was really good. tuikolavatu cooked it. i got to see lasalosi and vaimalu today. it was way good to see them again. it was just like old times, they still called me vin deisel and apparently everyone here knows that my name is vin diesel, even though they don't know my real name. they were the only polynesians there (at the tri-stake activity) so everyone pretty much associated me as being a poly as well. (even the polys) so i'm brown on the inside i guess.
i'm with elder gruninger, who is my "dad" or trainer, and also elder topete. and i'm elder gruninger's last companion. so that means that i'm "going to kill my dad" he's not too "trunky", but he's very experienced. they're both great guys and easy to get along with.
well my first week here has been hard but i'm slowly adjusting, hopefully things will get easier as the time goes by.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
one more thing...
i would also like to thank everyone for the love and support that they have shown. as i make my way across the ocean, it'll be much harder to write unless it's e-mail. so before i go, i want to say that i love you all for what you have done for me. thank you.
Monday, March 21, 2011
well this is useless for me now, but in a few months, jake will be coming here so another website to check out would be MTCdelivery.com.
my address in the philippines should stay the same (maybe) but if it changes then i'll try to put it up here. they'll most likely forward the mail to me anyways.
Well, i finally beat that record for bench press. i beat it last week by bench pressing 150lbs 110 times in a row without resting or stopping. unfortunately though, when i did beat it, i was doing it as a trial run so i didn't have anyone there to record it. i tried going after it again a few days later, but i didn't allow myself enough time to rest and heal up. i only had a week left so i ended up going for it every gym period. i thought i could get it just by pushing through it on a good day, but every day last week, i could only get to around 100 or so. the reason being was that i overworked my deltoids, which isn't a bad thing. but they were and still are pretty sore. it doesn't matter too much to me anymore. all i would get would be my name on the wall, which would be pretty sweet, but i already know that i beat it anyways.
still a little bit sick with strep throat again. Hopefully it won't affect my health while I'm just getting into the field.
i'm gonna miss the MTC, it's been my home for the past 3 months and i've shared some amazing experiences. i'm gonna miss the people here the most because they have been like family to me for the past three months. but i'm ready to go out there and preach the word of the lord. i may not be as prepared with the 4 languages that i'll be speaking but hopefully i'll pick them up soon enough.
i wasn't able to see an apostle for my last week which is kinda a bummer. but i did get to see jefferey r holland which was good enough to make me not care about seeing another.
well, i'm about to head on out and take my bags to the front. i'll be out the door at 4:30 pm,
i'll leave salt lake city at 7:55pm (21st) to san francisco and get there at 9:00 pm. then leave from san francisco at 1:00 am (22nd) to hong kong and get there at 6:45 am (23rd) i'll leave hong kong at 8:00 am to manilla and arrive at 10:00 am. then leave manilla at 2:00 pm and arrive in bacolod at 3:15 pm.
my address in the philippines should stay the same (maybe) but if it changes then i'll try to put it up here. they'll most likely forward the mail to me anyways.
Well, i finally beat that record for bench press. i beat it last week by bench pressing 150lbs 110 times in a row without resting or stopping. unfortunately though, when i did beat it, i was doing it as a trial run so i didn't have anyone there to record it. i tried going after it again a few days later, but i didn't allow myself enough time to rest and heal up. i only had a week left so i ended up going for it every gym period. i thought i could get it just by pushing through it on a good day, but every day last week, i could only get to around 100 or so. the reason being was that i overworked my deltoids, which isn't a bad thing. but they were and still are pretty sore. it doesn't matter too much to me anymore. all i would get would be my name on the wall, which would be pretty sweet, but i already know that i beat it anyways.
still a little bit sick with strep throat again. Hopefully it won't affect my health while I'm just getting into the field.
i'm gonna miss the MTC, it's been my home for the past 3 months and i've shared some amazing experiences. i'm gonna miss the people here the most because they have been like family to me for the past three months. but i'm ready to go out there and preach the word of the lord. i may not be as prepared with the 4 languages that i'll be speaking but hopefully i'll pick them up soon enough.
i wasn't able to see an apostle for my last week which is kinda a bummer. but i did get to see jefferey r holland which was good enough to make me not care about seeing another.
well, i'm about to head on out and take my bags to the front. i'll be out the door at 4:30 pm,
i'll leave salt lake city at 7:55pm (21st) to san francisco and get there at 9:00 pm. then leave from san francisco at 1:00 am (22nd) to hong kong and get there at 6:45 am (23rd) i'll leave hong kong at 8:00 am to manilla and arrive at 10:00 am. then leave manilla at 2:00 pm and arrive in bacolod at 3:15 pm.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Monday, March 17, 2011
things over here are going great. it defintiely feels like my last week here, i'm ready to go to the philippines. i'm still studying effectively though. i kinda need it because i don't feel prepared to teach in tagalog yet. but i've pretty much learned all that i can here. a lot of what comes next is trial and error, the language is the only issue and i'll be learning it the entire time that i am over there.
since this is my last week, i'm not sure if i'll be able to get anything posted next week because i leave on monday which just happens to be my p-day. fortunately, i'll be leaving at 4:30 so i should have enough time to write down a quick goodbye.
this past week for me has been pretty good. for a while i had made mountains out of molehills in trials with some of my district members. the reason being was because this is such a good district that we don't actually have any issues. our teachers even tell us that the other districts are no where near to how obedient we are. so because of the perfect example which we have been setting, i became concerned with some of the attitudes if some mebers of the district. in retrospect, those trials were solved rather quickly and i was able to keep my district unified. i guess alot of it has to do with the fact that this is our last week here. some of the feeling have been that we can slack off a little bit. an example of this was when one of our teachers didn't show up for class. some members wanted to just play a vocab game. but i ended up conducting the class and went through our daily routine of hymn, prayer, spiritual message, handbook, and then reading of the book of mormon in tagalog. all in all, our teacher was 30 minutes late and got back just in time to finish our book of mormon reading. i was kinda scared that i would be teaching the lesson, which i was about to do. but i was glad that i kept the district on task.
the weather here is no longer freezing. the snow is all melted and there are a few little flowers popping out of the ground here and there. it's a lot different looking than from the first week that i was here. but like my first week here, i'm sick again. i've been coughing up a lot recently and went to the health clinic and got some antibiotics for it. hopefully it'll clear up before i go to the philippines.
i'm hoping that for my last week here, i can see another apostle tomorrow at the devotional. the only one that i have seen so far here was Jefferey R Holland, which had a nice enough talk that i wouldn't be too upset if that was my only apostle that i saw here. he's pretty much the man.
Mom, by the way, i got the tie that you sent me and i love it. thank you, that was exactly what i was looking for. salamat po para sa ang pinakamagandang korbata. gusto ko sa magdamit na iyan. i was also hoping to get a few more ones like those or some that look like tribal ties but also in different colors. i'm sure that i'll find plenty of ties there to buy at very cheap prices, so i'll keep an eye out for them. on a side note, apparently they sell those wooden watches somewhere in arizona. also, i'm gonna be sending some stuff home for which i'm not gonna need (like my sweaters and heated blanket) so look for those in the mail. some stuff will also be going to people as gifts. so be sure to get in touch with the finlaysons about that.
since this is my last week, i'm not sure if i'll be able to get anything posted next week because i leave on monday which just happens to be my p-day. fortunately, i'll be leaving at 4:30 so i should have enough time to write down a quick goodbye.
this past week for me has been pretty good. for a while i had made mountains out of molehills in trials with some of my district members. the reason being was because this is such a good district that we don't actually have any issues. our teachers even tell us that the other districts are no where near to how obedient we are. so because of the perfect example which we have been setting, i became concerned with some of the attitudes if some mebers of the district. in retrospect, those trials were solved rather quickly and i was able to keep my district unified. i guess alot of it has to do with the fact that this is our last week here. some of the feeling have been that we can slack off a little bit. an example of this was when one of our teachers didn't show up for class. some members wanted to just play a vocab game. but i ended up conducting the class and went through our daily routine of hymn, prayer, spiritual message, handbook, and then reading of the book of mormon in tagalog. all in all, our teacher was 30 minutes late and got back just in time to finish our book of mormon reading. i was kinda scared that i would be teaching the lesson, which i was about to do. but i was glad that i kept the district on task.
the weather here is no longer freezing. the snow is all melted and there are a few little flowers popping out of the ground here and there. it's a lot different looking than from the first week that i was here. but like my first week here, i'm sick again. i've been coughing up a lot recently and went to the health clinic and got some antibiotics for it. hopefully it'll clear up before i go to the philippines.
i'm hoping that for my last week here, i can see another apostle tomorrow at the devotional. the only one that i have seen so far here was Jefferey R Holland, which had a nice enough talk that i wouldn't be too upset if that was my only apostle that i saw here. he's pretty much the man.
Mom, by the way, i got the tie that you sent me and i love it. thank you, that was exactly what i was looking for. salamat po para sa ang pinakamagandang korbata. gusto ko sa magdamit na iyan. i was also hoping to get a few more ones like those or some that look like tribal ties but also in different colors. i'm sure that i'll find plenty of ties there to buy at very cheap prices, so i'll keep an eye out for them. on a side note, apparently they sell those wooden watches somewhere in arizona. also, i'm gonna be sending some stuff home for which i'm not gonna need (like my sweaters and heated blanket) so look for those in the mail. some stuff will also be going to people as gifts. so be sure to get in touch with the finlaysons about that.
Monday, March 7, 2011
today, i'm just gonna talk a little bit about what it's like here at the MTC. there hasn't been much going on in the way of events going on. that kinda happens after spending 9 weeks here.
on wednesday, i gave my first blessing to someone. it was elder tomasi. he was sick and had a lot of trouble breathing. i told him to go to the health clinic but he didn't want to so i let him stay in his room while the rest of the district did service. i got called back and he wanted me to give him a blessing, along with his companion elder leishman. i got changed and annoited the oil and assisted in the blessing. it was my first time, so i wasn't really prepared but it turned out well and he eventually went to the health clinic. he's from tonga, so it may be the cold mountain air or the elevation or also the different sicknesses here. whatever the case, he seems to be doing better now. it was a good learning experience and i'm glad that he asked me to give it to him.
at 6:30 i wake up and get ready. i need to be in missionary attire by 7:00 which is breakfast time. although i never eat breakfast because i've always hated how greasy the food is for most breakfast meals. 7:30 is pretty tricky here at the MTC because our schedule is on a weekly basis. tuesdays we'll have gym, wednesdays we'll have service, thursdays we'll have personal study and other days, we'll have class. it goes on like this pretty much the entire week. but i've pretty much gotten used to the schedule where i know what i'm supposed to be doing at what time for each day.
so since everything fluctualtes, i'll just say what i normally do in a day. i'll have study for 3-4 hours and gym for 1. i'll have class for about 6-7 hours where i'm learning the language, and also teaching the lessons in tagalog.the rest of the time is used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. we have about an hour at night to prepare and an hour in the morning to prepare as well.
at 10:15, it's is quiet time in the residence halls. and at 10:30, it's lights out. normally, i don't get to bed till 11:00 because people are still up. and i also wake up around 6:00 because i'm a light sleeper. so not as much sleep as i'd hoped, especially with waking up in the middle of the night. but i've gotten used to it.
president mckiff is the 1st counselor to the MTC president. every devotional and fireside he'll be sitting there and most of the time, he'll be conducting the meeting. the reason why i'm talking about him is that he has the worst whistle while pronouncing his "S." i didn't really notice it until my companion Elder Gagnon pointed it out to me that he does that. him and elder tuitama have imitating his whistle every now and then and it's pretty hilarious. it's also funny to mention that the other night, elder gagnon was saying the companionship prayer and he kept whistling, which was completely accidental. i told him that he was gonna end up like his hero and he replied "sssweet" completely on accident.
there is an ice cream here that i'm sure britni would absolutely love. it's called graham canyon, everybody here loves it and i tried it and i liked it too. even though i don't like sweets, it was pretty good. it basically tastes just like biting into a graham cracker but with ice cream on it. i remember Britni also getting into the finlayson's pantry and grabbing graham crackers, so this might be something to try to find for her.
if anyone who is reading this knows of a way to send "in and out" and/or krispy kreme donuts, please talk to my mom. i know it can be done because plenty of people have gotten krispy kreme in the mail. but i don't know how... the in and out may be tricky because i think someone from the outside world needs to drop it off... i've also heard of called2serve.com... i think that may be how they get the krispy kreme donuts here.
also, if anyone wants to send a care package... ties, address stickers (so i can just slap a sticker on the mail and send it off) dried bananas, beef jerky, or donuts would be nice things to send. and pictures!
oh yeah, mom. i forgot to mention that my watch broke. i played too much volleyball with it. it still looks cool and the time on it works but the hands don't work very good anymore. could you try checking jc penny and see if they still have the same watch? it's a JF watch. if not, it's alright. i'll probably be buying a few watches in the Philippines. oh and can you try to find a way to get return address stickers for me? (for when i'm in the phillipines)
a few quotes that i read and like about my stay here;
kites that fly the highest, fly against the wind.
anyone can be successful on smooth seas, but it is the victor of the storm who gains the true honor.
some more things that i want to do when i get home:
use my skills with the tagalog language (MTC teacher, FBI translator, etc)
well i'm pretty much spent now, i don't really have very much more to write. anyways, keep the letters coming, it's nice to hear from home.
on wednesday, i gave my first blessing to someone. it was elder tomasi. he was sick and had a lot of trouble breathing. i told him to go to the health clinic but he didn't want to so i let him stay in his room while the rest of the district did service. i got called back and he wanted me to give him a blessing, along with his companion elder leishman. i got changed and annoited the oil and assisted in the blessing. it was my first time, so i wasn't really prepared but it turned out well and he eventually went to the health clinic. he's from tonga, so it may be the cold mountain air or the elevation or also the different sicknesses here. whatever the case, he seems to be doing better now. it was a good learning experience and i'm glad that he asked me to give it to him.
at 6:30 i wake up and get ready. i need to be in missionary attire by 7:00 which is breakfast time. although i never eat breakfast because i've always hated how greasy the food is for most breakfast meals. 7:30 is pretty tricky here at the MTC because our schedule is on a weekly basis. tuesdays we'll have gym, wednesdays we'll have service, thursdays we'll have personal study and other days, we'll have class. it goes on like this pretty much the entire week. but i've pretty much gotten used to the schedule where i know what i'm supposed to be doing at what time for each day.
so since everything fluctualtes, i'll just say what i normally do in a day. i'll have study for 3-4 hours and gym for 1. i'll have class for about 6-7 hours where i'm learning the language, and also teaching the lessons in tagalog.the rest of the time is used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. we have about an hour at night to prepare and an hour in the morning to prepare as well.
at 10:15, it's is quiet time in the residence halls. and at 10:30, it's lights out. normally, i don't get to bed till 11:00 because people are still up. and i also wake up around 6:00 because i'm a light sleeper. so not as much sleep as i'd hoped, especially with waking up in the middle of the night. but i've gotten used to it.
president mckiff is the 1st counselor to the MTC president. every devotional and fireside he'll be sitting there and most of the time, he'll be conducting the meeting. the reason why i'm talking about him is that he has the worst whistle while pronouncing his "S." i didn't really notice it until my companion Elder Gagnon pointed it out to me that he does that. him and elder tuitama have imitating his whistle every now and then and it's pretty hilarious. it's also funny to mention that the other night, elder gagnon was saying the companionship prayer and he kept whistling, which was completely accidental. i told him that he was gonna end up like his hero and he replied "sssweet" completely on accident.
there is an ice cream here that i'm sure britni would absolutely love. it's called graham canyon, everybody here loves it and i tried it and i liked it too. even though i don't like sweets, it was pretty good. it basically tastes just like biting into a graham cracker but with ice cream on it. i remember Britni also getting into the finlayson's pantry and grabbing graham crackers, so this might be something to try to find for her.
if anyone who is reading this knows of a way to send "in and out" and/or krispy kreme donuts, please talk to my mom. i know it can be done because plenty of people have gotten krispy kreme in the mail. but i don't know how... the in and out may be tricky because i think someone from the outside world needs to drop it off... i've also heard of called2serve.com... i think that may be how they get the krispy kreme donuts here.
also, if anyone wants to send a care package... ties, address stickers (so i can just slap a sticker on the mail and send it off) dried bananas, beef jerky, or donuts would be nice things to send. and pictures!
oh yeah, mom. i forgot to mention that my watch broke. i played too much volleyball with it. it still looks cool and the time on it works but the hands don't work very good anymore. could you try checking jc penny and see if they still have the same watch? it's a JF watch. if not, it's alright. i'll probably be buying a few watches in the Philippines. oh and can you try to find a way to get return address stickers for me? (for when i'm in the phillipines)
a few quotes that i read and like about my stay here;
kites that fly the highest, fly against the wind.
anyone can be successful on smooth seas, but it is the victor of the storm who gains the true honor.
some more things that i want to do when i get home:
use my skills with the tagalog language (MTC teacher, FBI translator, etc)
well i'm pretty much spent now, i don't really have very much more to write. anyways, keep the letters coming, it's nice to hear from home.
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